My Little Pony: The Invisible War
by Maria Seinheart
Summary: The future is full of destruction and Equestria, once the bastion of harmony, has gotten itself embroiled in it. Ever since the Technology Revolution and fall of the royal government, the country has been a battleground between those who seek to maintain the old world order and those who seek to replace it. Inspired by Deus Ex. Co-written with Nightmare Diamond.


**MLP: The Invisible War**

* * *

Prologue

* * *

It's been a while since she's seen it…truly taken everything in through her wide glassy panes and smooth iris with bold solid rich color like the center of a flower. Snow and its ageless delicacy, blinding to others in its wake. Few know and fewer take the time to care as it's a power that can toss aside the elderly and the infirmed outliers of society to die in the gutters as if they themselves were just as light and fragile as those billion clouds of crystal flakes that all add up to the weight of winter's gloom. Winter. The end of warmth. The death of light. The collision of child's play around the hearth and the feeling of imminent twilight as the aged fall gracefully alone. Graceful for the memories of years lived, of summers dreaming and harvest's bloom, they all made hearts beat calmer than anything a mere syringe could deliver. Tides of memories they had were rejected the same as stepping on stones to cross a small pond or a muddy field. One slip reminded them of lost time, the twisting pain of awful times, and a reminder that time is not a servant but a master. Save for the princesses of course, beings so far removed from their lives that they may as well have been as irreproachable as the passing of winter and the rise of the yearly warmth, thawing the cold light of the stars. For the mare, Midnight Star, she felt as though the world became irreconcilably remote. She could look out to see children edging out niches to own the winter day and keep still the night, holding close to a fire's embrace. When spring comes, children old enough will go forth to reap the harvests alongside their parents. The world would be ready to rise under the direction of a new virtuoso of harmony.

Like a stopped clock, Midnight Star found herself facing the blunt force of wintery wind that matted and hardened fur to skin like crafter's cement crudely slathered on her body and assaulted her eyes shut not unlike stinging shower water just as it was the year before. A year had passed and she revered back to past thoughts as that first anniversary loomed closer just like anyone else that came close to suffering what she had seen with the pain she carried in her body torn and mind spun around and churned to grey mush.

All the stress of the past leapt from the very icy black framed window she used to spy the hibernating world outside. To them, likely nothing has changed at all save for all the things that normal people enjoy in life. It's almost as if keeping a heartbeat simply isn't enough. Living on, trudging from date to date, with horrific thoughts teetering one's mind closer to the edge of insanity until winter begs to come in from the tame and conquered beyond the cold panes of glass. She has seen glass frosted over by the cold and both sharp and aimless as the edged points of the microscopic flakes that build up into mountains and rivers. Glass with a dangerous edge when it's crushed and splintered. Glass that she fears to touch her lips against but lends a wary eye towards. A glass is taken from a cardboard box and levitated near her. The thin and expensive vial that once held liquids ranging in their visual appeal from enchanting blue to sensual red was now crusted over in the light line scratched opaqueness of age, fully and utterly unused. She almost wished to smile, feeling almost a pang of sympathy for it as it turned in the air. Something without purpose is best left discarded. She put it away but replaced it with a whole wine bottle. She closed her eyes, letting the cold liquid take its scorching passage down her throat. A dull satisfaction now hers, she put it away behind the couch where none could see it. Not that she ever had company over anyway. A trail of red dripped down her muzzle and she touched it with a white cloth. She looked down and saw that a few drops had landed on the wood floor so she tried to wipe it away with her hoof but it only managed to smear. Annoyed, she bent down and wiped it clean before returning back to the way she was sitting before.

Her composure was settled that evening so she kept watch over the city. What a city it had become. Towers vaulted ever higher with platforms and sky bridges linking them together as they rose over the imaginations of the past. What took Midnight Star's attention was the ever-present glow of plasma tubes in bright red, green and yellow. Flashing white bulbs over signs and advertisements as big as buildings themselves, a choking plight, are poised to strike into the minds of those at street level. Brands of less legitimacy find no less ease in snaking its way across the city and don't lack business for the drunken, drugged up and the usual debauchery of the new night that came to this land. Old fashioned things, fashion, still lived on but also competed with the new. Augmentations that promised the impossible. The mechanical shrieks of holograms, the wretched smells of steam and perfume of passersby, the conning and oppressive demands of those pushing all forms of products that had to be bought. The typical city of a new age and a new world. In a way, she was forever bent towards despising it.

Midnight Star had a life. It wasn't one that could be glamorized like the slim models that go out at night and as they thought of it, she considered the night to be her day. But the life she made was her own and she had never regretted anything she may have done that has led her to her apartment high up over the streets. There was always light inside, casting a dim sunset orange from a chic black metal pole with an oval shaped lamp at the top that could be repositioned so that it often reminded her of a turtle's misshapen head. Always set to its lowest setting, one might barely be able to read inside. The light made its way between the door of her bedroom and the wall. Being pitch black inside, one wouldn't able to see her colt friend. His name was Red Shift, snorer extraordinaire. They didn't always sleep together due to his love of day and her restlessness at night but she tended to be playful often. She thought every now and then about gently sliding a cold mechanical hoof around his nostrils until his head reflexed from the chill like being hit in the face by a snowball. But she never decided to do this. She rarely allowed this hoof to touch her own skin much less to lay it on him or anypony else. Besides, she wanted him to sleep as much as he could. He was going through a phase as a government employee, a secretary for a powerful minister as she had done before him. Her post-university life was just as tiring as she feared it would be and only half as fulfilling; at least it had been for a while. She picked her colt friend well, being that he could figure out a hundred ways to calm her down or solve a problem but was not so incredibly stifling as to be unapproachable. He was smart and efficient like she was in school but with the added benefit of his friendly disposition and being quite outgoing. Their life together was stitched day by day with goodbyes and mentions of 'see you later' but they met in the middle when one waking day began and the other slowly declined. It was when Red lied there unconscious that she felt alone and left with only her thoughts as company.

Of course, thinking about the anniversary and the year she endured brought every thought spiraling into a long reminiscence of her government where her faith in what she served slipped from her hooves. Their highest symbol exposed to the world managed to hide itself in the shadows of night. The Citadel was its name, an intense cone of rigid layers of steel beams rising over all the towers. Long arched supports angled from all sides supported its massive weight and it looked like a pinecone from afar or a spiked grenade. It was surely lit up like eternal day inside but few lights marked its existence from outside including the zenith which ended in a tall observatory. It didn't beckon welcome and served its economic and civil uses well. Railway lines shot from the center hub and went across the city and beyond. Midnight had to go there so often during her university days that she had hated going there even before that day a year ago. Museums and shops brought the crowds that she now avoided. It was a vast open air space inside but despite the look, citizens were heavily restricted as to where they could go. When the royal government fell, much of their former property including the old castle was locked away and remains behind barred gates to this very day. Old libraries kept safe and the old scientific laboratories eluded the eyes of nearly everyone. Instead of being able to see the past, most ponies were overwhelmed by the power of modernist structural achievements and this had been under the supervision of the one and only Amber Vale. So shiny with an appearance like bronze plastic, the descendant of the rich and beautiful pony known as Diamond Tiara kept her family's reputation alive with their gift of this Citadel. Midnight had never seen her outside of fashion magazines but you could see pictures of her old family strewn at the entrances and exits of the subways. They were going to make sure that ponies knew who's building they had just been through. Her company, Equestrian Heavy Industries, was given grants due to the reputation of Amber Vale as a stanch anti-royalist and dutifully obedient to the ideals of the scientific revolution. Her shell like the sphere of electrons over an atom kept the castle and everything it symbolized contained within.

The history of the government isn't what kept Midnight Star's mind fixed to that place. On the anniversary especially, she was constantly reminded of the events that may have failed to take her life but had left it as a shadow of its former self. She would never forget that day.

* * *

One year ago….

A wonderful holiday was fast approaching and Midnight Star herself marked the days off her own calendar in anticipation. It was the old holiday, Hearth's Warming Eve. It was and still is a festive time to spend with family and she was no exception. She didn't even have to plead her case to her supervisor, the police commissioner of its value. She was granted almost no work at all except for a few hours in the morning before she could take the train back to Ponyville. It didn't sound like it was going to be a big deal to work the night before either. She could already psychically taste the upcoming macaroni salad made by her brother that worked in town as a reporter. No last day on the job was going to slow her down especially noting how long it has been since she's actually visited family.

Ever since leaving the extremely dull procedural realm of secretarial work, she's entered into the slightly quickened yet still procedural pulse of a job patrolling the streets. At first glance, the job looked straightforward but there was no such thing as an easy job and frankly, a rough takedown of a few aggregated suspects out on the streets seemed tame compared to what she hoped not to have to dwell on the train ride home. The threat of rioting was a totally different flavor of fear that the younger recruits especially were drawn away from like domesticated animals from fireworks. Naturally they wouldn't want to face hundreds of organized crowds of ponies organized surprisingly tight with bottles thrown from strategically placed anarchists that would start a riot just for the fun of it. What the holiday was about meant nothing to them and they were just as glad to see it burn as the established authority. Rioting led to more paperwork for the grunts at the office and possibly for her, waiting at her desk, but going back to that meant that she had returned safely from the streets.

Midnight Star was assigned to work the streets these days with her newer partner from someplace north by the name of Six Tin. She had the image of a metallic star on her flank and a provincial voice like nails grating on the side of a mobile home to the ears of a librarian. Her mane had a dirty color of the side of a hill, half warm like sand and dirt sprinkled liberally within and even though procedure demanded that she cut and strap her thorn bush of a head of hair into a ponytail, it had yet to lessen the oddity of it all. Her face was almost no better. No freckles but huge red splotches like a rash of perhaps an irritation.

That night, the two of them were on a brief break to catch some food at a local burger place where the servers came to the cars on those tacky roller skates. Midnight shivered just from looking at the servers in their light clothes. Her own heavy jacket wasn't enough for her and she kept the heat stuck on high. She dreaded even a brief break in the cocoon of heat but she lowered the window to let the food in and paid for their vegetable patty sandwiches.

Her partner loved herself some of those sandwiches.

"These are just plain delicious" she said, stuffing her face with it.

"Yeah, I like the hay fries myself" Midnight replied casually.

Six Tin had to choke down a mouthful for once. "I don't believe…it's actually cold in the middle…these cheapskates just throw a patty on there like it's nothing but I ought to give them a piece of my mind right now"! She looked ready to shout after the server.

"It can't be that bad. Just eat".

"Of course you aren't complaining…you're barely eatin' at all" she motioned over to the light meal Midnight ordered. "You can't expect to stay strong on that diet".

Midnight gave a sincere glance over to her friend. "It's not a problem. Really".

"Whatever ya say". Six Tin resumed plowing her snout into the food. Levitating a few fries her way, Midnight looked outside of the car on the other side of the street.

"What are you thinking"? She delicately pointed a hoof towards a few inconspicuous ponies dressed all in black. She at least couldn't help but feel suspicious about them for some reason.

"What"? Six Tin kept chewing. "You want to shadow them or something"?

"Yeah, that wouldn't be a bad idea". Midnight's words flowed out with some hesitation but her experience wouldn't let some irregularly dressed ponies put fear in her.

She already had a feeling that they were spotted as the ponies they were watching started leaving. Even from a distance, Midnight noticed that one had a Mohawk haircut. There was no point in acting innocent. They were seen looking their way.

"Put the burger down. We're heading out".

"Got it".

She started the car and decided to cruise gently down the street. They did have a lamp in case they had to see into darkness.

"These hardcore royalists…they get under my skin" Six Tin said, rattling off typical propaganda everyone in the force was given to in the form of pamphlets and posters. "It's a crown they have on their stupid jackets. I want to punch them in their stupid faces". She grinned at the thought.

"I just hate anarchists. They have no respect for authority" Midnight replied. "We have to make sure they aren't planning anything and if they are, we have to stop them".

Midnight Star was glad that they at least had a ton of metal around them in case they were attacked. They hadn't exactly prepared for anything more engaging than some local trouble but having to deal with the anarchists was a tough job even for a veteran.

They headed through a neighborhood and into an abandoned lot where they saw them again, heading in a seemingly random direction and not in any hurry. Down Conway Street, Midnight gripped her sidearm. This was a place known for harboring royalists. She decided to urge weapons be drawn. The black clothed ponies turned a corner down a narrow alley clustered with dumpsters and a literal ton of discarded newspapers. But as they turned the corner, they were greeted with an aura of residual magic in the air, mixing in their icy breath, dissolving into the night air. They were gone. Vanished without a trace.

"Ponyfeathers" Six Tin muttered angrily.

"What"?

"It's just a saying. It's too bad we lost them. Let's radio back. Hopefully somepony will spot the slippery ponies somewhere else".

"Sure. Let's go".

With the danger passed, they plodded back to the car. She got it running warm again in no time. They resumed a light search later but they saw nothing. In fact, the whole neighborhood was strangely deserted. The last bit of the sunset left the horizon and the field of stars took its place. Starswirl Avenue, like every other street, was barely wide enough for a car. Six Tin said she barely could drive at all so asking to navigate the roads once reserved only for foot traffic was simply not going to happen.

"It's time to take you back, Six" Midnight said. She drove out onto the cross city main road which was large enough for six lanes of traffic.

"I guess so. Any chance you might need me? I could always do a little overtime" she suggested. She always tried to get "overtime" so they could work together. She supposed that this was what friends did.

"I appreciate the offer but I'll be fine. You deserve some rest with the year you've had and I'll bet that your family has missed you".

Six Tin chuckled happily. "They sure do".

They weren't far from the district where the precinct was at but they heard their senior dispatcher come through like a fire alarm. When her voice was heard, something serious was happening. Midnight instinctively turned the sound up without missing a beat. A Code Red this time; a major emergency. She's never gone through one…as far as she's known…nopony has.

Six Tin's normally expressive voice turned somber like she had heard of a death in the family. "This is a big deal".

"Yes, we better head over there pronto".

She still couldn't believe it. A Code Red really meant only one thing. Someone from the government has been taken hostage.

Midnight crushed the accelerator, blaring a path through the throng of commuters trying to drive home. It was like a state of emergency with trains stopped in the dark and gates mechanically sealing people in the tunnels and the mall. As they arrived, they could see smoke rise and blot out some of the bright city lights. They could smell it too. A bag of plastic explosives had torn off heavy doors into the Citadel. Ones not normally accessed by the general public. Just ten minutes in, reporters came to witness what they may have seen as a mere accident and asked anyone that looked like they had authority all the questions they really had to ask. The two of them slammed their way past them and their voice recorders. They had no time for that and left a few rookies to try to take them to a safe distance because the two of them knew it wasn't anything close to routine.

It was a maintenance corridor that was breached. The hot air escaped in a whoosh and a long mechanical hiss. The lights flickered inside. The two of them entered with arms at the ready, stepping around chunks of burning concrete and wood.

"We should turn back" Midnight warned in a clinical tone of voice straight from her training. "We aren't prepared for this and we aren't negotiators".

Six Tin slid back her pistol until it locked a round into place. "I'll negotiate with this" she retorted, crazily earnest in her determination.

"That's a mistake".

"A mistake would be wasting time while someone important is waiting for us to go save them. That's what this is. A rescue mission". The bullheaded mare rushed inside, holding her shirt to her mouth in a lame attempt to protect her mouth from smoke. Midnight cursed under her breath and went after her partner.

It wasn't long until they reached an area closer to the main boarding platforms for the train station. Several open floors looked out onto the area. Stone pillars held them up. A light ringing still continued. On the second floor, the two of them came within sight of armed figures. With lightning reflexes, they sprayed fire at them erratically from machine pistols. Midnight became trapped behind the pillar. Six Tin yelled and her pain was known to her immediately. Midnight couldn't hope to swerve away from there nor attack them. She could only plead to them.

"Think of what you're doing! Please stop this attack"! A hopeless effort, she knew but what more could she do?

A gruff voice responded harshly. "Shut up"! Heavy automatic fire came as thuds bouncing off the walls, accentuated by the tinkling of marble shards across what was once a smooth floor for travelers. There was no hope for her now. Not against automatic weapons.

"Please…I'll throw my weapon down. Just don't fire". She took a chance and slid the weapon away. Her breath squeezed tight, her fate uncertain and possibly doomed from the start. She decided to talk to them as if she only had seconds left.

"What do you want? What are you trying to accomplish here"?

"You know! It's a rightful tradeoff. Free our leaders, the glorious princesses and we shall return our prisoners and cease our war upon you. Even if we die in battle, we are just soldiers tasked for duty. You can't stop us through force of arms. Even trying is a waste of blood"!

"You can't do this! It's not going to work! You'll only cause trouble for Equestria in the long run"!

"Trouble? This unnatural realm of yours is nothing but instability, you demon. Our glory will rise again whether you wish for it or not. Now, come and kneel before us".

Midnight stepped out, blood running down her face from a dozen shrapnel wounds. Her fur was a matted mess. She slunk under wobbly legs as if leaving a burnt out den and right into the sights of hunters. She saw them and the stallion she spoke to positioned a heavy rifle perched on a bench. He was rugged and his muscles were barely contained by his black uniform and mask. Midnight could only find herself repeating the word 'please' over and over again as if that was going to derive sympathy.

Their leader walked up to her with some sense of smug satisfaction.

"The princesses shall lead you to glory after death. I'm sorry you choose the wrong path in life". He put his pistol to her chest and fired point blank into her. Close enough to suffer burns through her uniform, she crumpled on the floor. Midnight turned her head in fright, barely registering her own wound as they now moved to where Six Tin lay behind her own cover. Wounded but not dead, she slowly moved her arm to the side until she touched the pistol she slid away. Tears fell from her face. She wasn't fast enough. The stallion shot her partner seconds before her arm pulled her own weapon up and put one in his neck. Emptying it in a rage, all of them except the stallion she shot dropped low to avoid the lethal threat. Blood had filled his mouth and he hit the ground hard. The last thing she remembered was the plinking sound of a grenade rolling right in front of her. The pistol felt as if it weighted a ton. Thinking it was the end, she was glad to relieve her arm of the pressure. It was time to go.

* * *

A year later, Midnight Star transfixed her gaze on her new machine self. Blood and circuitry intermixed. There wasn't much left of her body to reject the cool steel. The wires. The artificiality of this new life. The augmentations gave her some light transformation powers but she didn't use them often.

Beyond that, she had no memory of what happened to her after the royalists tried to kill her. Doctors that were more mechanic than traditional surgeon wrote the word alive in quotes. She had no idea what to think. The flesh of her body not scorched or torn had been altered so badly that it had to be replaced. Explosive power does that to the body. It's not just fire but an incredible pressure that literally can liquefy organs. Luckily her major ones survived, allowing her to live on as an organic being indefinitely. But was she among the living? She was too thankful to ask but thought of it often. She could still drink and feel from her artificial body but her mind ached with doubt and blame. She was going to cry when she received a message on her communicator.

"Hello?" her natural voice said.

"Midnight, how are you handing the night?" her commissioner asked. He was not that nice but to her, he didn't do much to upset her. He has two daughters and he has a soothing voice that can relate ponies he's trying to comfort.

"Still recovering, sir. My body isn't easy but it's all worth it".

"Have you taken my advice then"? She knew what his soft voice was alluding to. They had spoken a couple months ago about her seeing a therapist but she waived the idea off. She wasn't going to see anyone but a physical therapist if she could help it. Even that was a nightmare. Daily struggles getting her heavy body to function. She couldn't stand it.

"I have considered it" she lied.

"Alright. I hope you aren't pushing yourself over what happened. I went to her funeral over in the country. I couldn't believe it really. They welcomed me like I was long lost family or something…things really are different over there. Anyway, I would like for you to come down to my office. Tomorrow if you think you can handle it".

"I don't know, sir. My medical leave isn't concluded yet".

"I just thought you would be interested. It's about the kidnapped ministers and those who did it. At least we're about as positive as we could possibly be".

"Understood. Tomorrow, it is. Thank you, sir".

Her pulse quickened and she jumped up to her feet, pacing around. She went to look at her colt friend. She already felt guilty, knowing she wouldn't be able to greet him as he woke up. She smiled, maybe her last until she had the pleasure of killing those that ended the life of her friend.


End file.
